The predictable whining from the Tennessee Democratic Party and its utterly feckless Chairman Chip Forrester has begun in earnest, with Forrester and his Democrats complaining that Republicans have not been transparent in revealing redistricting proposals. We have discussed some possible district realignment developments in this space, but as has been repeated here on multiple occasions, nothing is official, and should not be seen as such. We suspect that the reason the Democrats want the Republicans to hurry so quickly with the redistricting process is so that they can try and find some reason to sue over it. Forrester and his cronies know that one of the big reasons why the GOP hasn't yet released any official information about redistricting plans is because Tennessee's Republican National Committeeman, John Ryder, is playing a big role in that process and Ryder knows how to avoid legal troubles when it comes to drawing constituency lines.
When Democrats controlled the General Assembly, they allowed Democratic Congressmen to decide their district lines and threw Republicans the scraps. When determining legislative districts, former House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh (D-Covington) had a goal not only of protecting Democratic incumbents, but especially those that were personally loyal to him. After the Naifeh crew got through carving up the House to protect themselves, Republicans would get the leftovers, and if you happened to get drawn out of your district, oh well...it meant you probably gave Boss Jimmy trouble in the first place.
Republicans are not allowing their Congressmen to unilaterally make decisions about the shapes of their districts, and this writer knows this because Congressman Phil Roe (R-Johnson City) has been kind enough to share privately with us what some of his preferences might be, but has said that he doesn't know with certainty what the map will look like anymore than the rest of us do. Unless they are on the redistricting committee, Republican legislators are picking and choosing either. Rep. Frank Niceley (R-Strawberry Plains) has told The Examiner that he'd love to have all ov Jefferson County, but as we reported here, it seems to be much less likely that this will happen, although Niceley now says that he thinks that instead of getting East Knox County, he may not get any of Knox County at all and that for all he knows, the 17th House District as redrawn might extend into part of Sevier County.
At the end of the day, the districts which are drawn will be fair and equitable districts-and they will be more Republican in political scope, but only because Tennessee is now more Republican than she has ever been before.
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